MARCH 19TH

Bright as the day and as the morning fair,Such Cloe is, & common as the air.

— Benjamin Franklin,1742

AMERICANREVOLUTION.ORG

DOMESTIC MEDICINE

CHAP. II.

OF THE LABORIOUS, THE SEDENTARY,
AND THE STUDIOUS.

THAT men are exposed to particular diseases
from the occupations which they follow, is a fact well known;
but to remedy this evil, is a matter of some difficulty. Most
people are under a necessity of following the employments to
which they have been bred, whether they be favourable to health
or not. For this reason, instead of inveighing, in a general
way, as some authors have done, against those occupations which
are hurtful to health, we shall endeavour to point out the circumstances
in each of them from which the danger chiefly arises, and to
propose the most rational methods of preventing it.

CHYMISTS, founders, glass-makers, and several
other artists, are hurt by the unwholesome air which they are
obliged to breathe. This air is not only loaded with the noxious
exhalations arising from metals and minerals, but is so charged
with phlogiston as to be rendered unfit for expanding the lungs
sufficiently, and answering the other important purposes of respiration.
Hence proceed asthmas, coughs, and consumptions of the lungs,
so incident to persons who follow these employments.

TO prevent such consequences, as far as possible,
the places where these occupations are carried on, ought to be
constructed with the utmost care for discharging the smoke and
other exhalations, and admitting a free current of fresh air.
Such artists ought never to continue too long at work; and when
they give over, they should suffer themselves to cool gradually,
and put on their clothes before they go into the open air. They
ought never to drink large quantities of cold, weak, or watery
liquors, while their bodies are hot, nor to indulge in raw fruits,
sallads, or any thing that is cold on the stomach.

MINERS, and all who work under ground, are
likewise hurt by unwholesome air. The air, by its stagnation
in deep mines, not only loses its proper spring and other qualities
necessary for respiration, but is often loaded with such noxious
exhalations as to become a most deadly poison.

THE two kinds of air which prove most destructive
to miners, are what they call the fire damp, and the choke
damp. In both cases the air becomes a poison by its being
loaded with phlogiston. The danger from the former may be obviated
by making it explode before it accumulates in too great quantities;
and the latter may be generally carried off by promoting free
circulation of air in the mine.

MINERS are not only hurt by unwholesome air,
but likewise by the particles of metal which adhere to their
skin, clothes, &c. These are absorbed, or taken up into the
body, and occasion palsies, vertigoes, and other nervous affections,
which often prove fatal. Fallopius observes, that those who work
in mines of mercury seldom live above three or four years. Lead,
and several other metals, are likewise very pernicious to the
health.

MINERS ought never to go to work fasting,
nor to continue too long at work. Their food ought to be nourishing,
and their liquor generous: Nothing more certainly hurts them
than living too low. They should by all means avoid costiveness.
This may either be done by chewing a little rhubarb, or taking
a sufficient quantity of sallad oil. Oil not only opens the body,
but sheaths and defends the intestines from the ill effects of
the metals. All who work in mines or metals ought to wash carefully,
and to change their clothes as soon as they give over working.
Nothing would tend more to preserve the health of such people
than a strict, and almost religious regard to cleanliness.

PLUMBERS, painters, gilders, smelters, makers
of white lead, and many others who work in metals, are liable
to the same diseases as miners, and ought to observe the same
directions for avoiding them.

TALLOW-CHANDLERS, boilers of oil, and all
who work in putrid animal substances, are likewise liable to
suffer from the unwholesome smells or effluvia of these bodies.
They ought to pay the same regard to cleanliness as miners; and
when they are troubled with nausea, sickness, or indigestion,
we would advise them to take a vomit or a gentle purge. Such
substances ought always to be manufactured as soon as possible.
When long kept, they not only become unwholesome to those who
manufacture them, but likewise to people who live in the neighbourhood.

IT would greatly exceed the limits of this
part of our subject, to specify the diseases peculiar to persons
of every occupation; we shall therefore consider mankind under
the general classes of Laborious, Sedentary, and Studious.

THE LABORIOUS.

THOUGH those who follow laborious employments
are in general the most healthy of mankind, yet the nature of
their occupations, and the places where they are carried on,
expose them more particularly to some diseases. Husbandmen, for
example, are exposed to all the vicissitudes of the weather,
which, in this country, are often very great and sudden, and
occasion colds, coughs, quinsies, rheumatisms, fevers, and other
acute disorders. They are likewise forced to work hard, and often
to carry burdens above their strength, which, by overstraining
the vessels, occasion asthmas, ruptures, &c.

THOSE who labour without doors are often afflicted
with intermitting fevers or agues, occasioned by the frequent
vicissitudes of heat and cold, poor living, bad water, sitting
or lying on the damp ground, evening dews, night air, &c.
to which they are frequently exposed.

SUCH as bear heavy burdens, as porters, labourers,
&c. are obliged to draw in the air with much greater force,
and also to keep their lungs distended with more violence, than
is necessary for common respiration: By this means the tender
vessels of the lungs are overstretched, and often burst, insomuch
that a spitting of blood or fever ensues. Hippocrates mentions
an instance to this purpose, of a man, who, upon a wager, carried
an ass; but was soon after seized with a fever, a vomiting of
blood, and a rupture.

CARRYING heavy burdens is generally the effect
of mere laziness, which prompts people to do at once what should
be done at twice. Sometimes it proceeds from vanity or emulation.
Hence it is, that the strongest men are most commonly hurt by
heavy burdens, hard labour, or feats of activity. It is rare
to find one who boasts of his strength without a rupture, a spitting
of blood, or some other disease, which he reaps as the fruit
of his folly. One would imagine, the daily instances we have,
of the fatal effects of carrying great weights, running, wrestling,
and the like would be sufficient to prevent such practices.

THERE are indeed some employments, which necessarily
require a great exertion of strength, as porters, blacksmiths,
carpenters, &c. None ought to follow these but men of strong
body, and they should never exert their strength to the utmost,
nor work too long. When the muscles are violently strained, frequent
rest is necessary, in order that they may recover their tone;
without this, the strength and constitution will soon be worn
out, and a premature old age brought on.

THE erisipelas, or St. Anthony's fire, is
a disease very incident to the laborious. It is occasioned by
whatever gives a sudden check to the perspiration, as drinking
cold water when the body is warm, wet feet, keeping on wet clothes,
sitting or lying on the damp ground, &c. It is impossible
for those who labour without doors always to guard against these
inconveniencies; but it is known from experience, that their
ill consequences might often be prevented by proper care.

THE iliac passion, the cholic, and other complaints
of the bowels, are often occasioned by the same causes as the
erisipelas; but they may likewise proceed from flatulent and
indigestible food. Labourers generally eat unfermented bread,
made of peas, beans, rye, and other windy ingredients. They also
devour great quantities of unripe fruits, baked, stewed, or raw,
with various kinds of roots and herbs, upon which they oft drink
sour milk, stale small beer, or the like. Such a mixture cannot
fail to fill the bowels with wind, and occasion diseases of those
parts.

INFLAMMATIONS, whitloes, and other diseases
of the extremities, are likewise common amongst those who labour
without doors. These diseases are often attributed to venom,
or some kind of poison; but they generally proceed either from
sudden heat after cold, or the contrary. When labourers, milk-maids,
&c. come from the field, cold or wet, they run to the fire,
and often plunge their hands in warm water, by which means the
blood and other humours in those parts are suddenly expanded,
and, the vessels not yielding so quickly, a strangulation happens,
and an inflammation or mortification ensues.

WHEN such persons come home cold, they ought
to keep at a distance from the fire for some time, to wash their
hands in cold water, and to rub them well with a dry cloth. It
sometimes happens, that people are so benumbed with cold, as
to be quite deprived of the use of their limbs. In this case,
the only remedy is to rub the parts affected with snow, or, where
it cannot be had, with cold water. If they be held near the fire,
or plunged into warm water, a mortification will generally ensue.

LABOURERS in the hot season are apt to lie
down and sleep in the sun. This practice is so dangerous, that
they often wake in a burning fever. These ardent fevers, which
prove so fatal about the end of summer and beginning of autumn,
are frequently occasioned by this means. When labourers leave
off work, which they ought always to do during the heat of the
day, they should go home, or, at least, get under some cover,
where they may repose themselves in safety.

MANY people follow their employments in the
fields from morning till night, without eating any thing. This
cannot fail to hurt their health. However homely their fare be,
they ought to have it at regular times; and the harder they work,
the more frequently they should eat. If the humours be not frequently
replenished with fresh nourishment, they soon become putrid,
and produce fevers of the very worst kind.

MANY peasants are extremely careless with
respect to what they eat or drink, and often, through mere indolence,
use unwholesome food, when they might for the same expence have
that which is wholesome. In some parts of Britain, the peasants
are too careless even to take the trouble of dressing their own
victuals. Such people would live upon one meal a day in indolence,
rather than labour, though it were to procure them the greatest
affluence.

FEVERS of a very bad kind are often occasioned
among labourers by poor living. When the body is not sufficiently
nourished, the humours become vitiated, and the solids weak;
from whence the most fatal consequences ensue. Poor living
is likewise productive of many of those cutaneous diseases so
frequent among the lower class of people. It is remarkable that
cattle, when pinched in their food, are generally affected with
diseases of the skin, which seldom fail to disappear when they
are put upon a good pasture. This shews how much a good state
of the humours depends upon a sufficient quantity of proper nourishment.

POVERTY not only occasions, but aggravates,
many of the diseases of the laborious. Few of them have much
foresight; and, if they had, it is seldom in their power to save
any thing. They are glad to make a shift to live from day to
day; and, when any disease overtakes them, they are miserable
indeed. Here the godlike virtue of charity ought always to exert
itself. To relieve the industrious poor in distress, is surely
the most exalted act of religion and humanity. They alone, who
are witnesses of those scenes of calamity, can form a notion
of what numbers perish in diseases, for want of proper assistance,
and even for want of the necessaries of life.

LABOURERS are often hurt by a foolish emulation,
which prompts them to vie with one another, till they overheat
themselves to such a degree as to occasion a fever, or even to
drop down dead. Such as wantonly throw away their lives in this
manner, deserve to be looked upon in no better light than self-murderers.

THE office of a soldier, in time of
war, may be ranked amongst the laborious employments. Soldiers
suffer many hardships from the inclemency of seasons, long marches,
bad provisions, hunger, watching, unwholesome climates, bad water,
&c. These occasion fevers, fluxes, rheumatisms, and other
fatal diseases, which generally do greater execution than the
sword, especially when campaigns are continued too late in the
year. A few weeks of cold rainy weather will often prove more
fatal than an engagement.

THOSE who have the command of armies, should
take care that their soldiers be well clothed and well fed. They
ought also to finish their campaigns in due season, and to provide
their men with dry and well-aired winter-quarters. These rules,
taking care, at the same time, to keep the sick at a proper distance
from those in health, would tend greatly to preserve the lives
of the soldiery.

IT is indeed to be regretted, that soldiers
suffer not less from indolence and intemperance in time of peace,
than from hardships in time of war. If men are idle they will
be vicious. It would therefore be of great importance, could
a scheme be formed for rendering the military, in times of peace,
both more healthy and more useful. These desirable objects might,
in our opinion, be obtained, by employing them for some hours
every day, and advancing their pay accordingly. By this means,
idleness, the mother of vice, might be prevented, the price of
labour lowered, public works, as harbours, canals, turnpike roads,
&c. might be made without hurting manufactures; and soldiers
might be enabled to marry, and bring up children. A scheme of
this kind might easily be conducted, so as not to depress the
martial spirit, provided the men were only to work four or five
hours every day, and always to work without doors: no soldier
should be suffered to work too long, or to follow any sedentary
employment. Sedentary employments render men weak and effeminate,
quite unfit for the hardships of war: whereas working for a few
hours every day without doors, would inure them to the weather,
brace their nerves, and increase their strength and courage.

SAILORS may also be numbered amongst the laborious.
They undergo great hardships from change of climate, the violence
of weather, hard labour, bad provisions &c. Sailors are of
so great importance both to the trade and safety of this kingdom,
that too much pains can never be bestowed in pointing out the
means of preserving their lives.

ONE great source of the diseases of sea-faring
people is excess. When they get on shore, after having been long
at sea, without regard to the climate, or their own constitutions,
they plunge headlong into all manner of riot, and often persist
till a fever puts an end to their lives. Thus intemperance, and
not the climate, is often the cause why so many of our brave
sailors die on foreign coasts. Such people ought not to live
too low; but they will find moderation the best defence against
fevers, and many other maladies.

SAILORS, when on duty, cannot avoid sometimes
getting wet. When this happens, they should change their clothes
as soon as they are relieved, and take every method to restore
the perspiration. They should not, in this case, have recourse
to spirits, or other strong liquors, but should rather drink
such as are weak and diluting, of a proper warmth, and go immediately
to bed, where a sound sleep and a gentle sweat would set all
to rights.

BUT the health of sailors suffers most from
unwholesome food. The constant use of salted provisions vitiates
their humours, and occasions the scurvy, and other obstinate
maladies. It is no easy matter to prevent this disease in long
voyages; yet we cannot help thinking, that much might be done
towards effecting so desirable an end, were due pains bestowed
for that purpose. For example, various roots, greens, and fruits,
might be kept a long time at sea, as onions, potatoes, cabbages,
lemons, oranges, tamarinds, apples, &c. When fruits cannot
be kept, the juices of them, either fresh or fermented, may.
With these all the drink, and even the food of the ship's company,
ought to be acidulated in long voyages.

STALE bread and beer likewise contribute to
vitiate the humours. Meal will keep for a long time on board,
of which fresh bread might frequently be made. Malt too might
be kept, and infused with boiling water at any time. This liquor,
when drank even in form of wort, is very wholesome, and is found
to be an antidote against the scurvy. Small wines and cyder might
likewise be plentifully laid in and should they turn sour, they
would still be useful as vinegar. Vinegar is a great antidote
against diseases, and should be used by all travellers, especially
at sea. It may either be mixed with the water they drink, or
taken in their food.

SUCH animals as can be kept alive, ought likewise
to be carried on board, as hens, ducks, pigs, &c. Fresh broths
made of portable soup, and puddings made of peas, or other vegetables,
ought to be used plentifully. Many other things will readily
occur to people conversant in these matters, which would tend
to preserve the health of that brave and useful set of men.

OUR countryman, the celebrated Captain COOK,
has shewn how far, by proper care and attention, the diseases
formerly so fatal to seamen may be prevented. In a voyage of
three years and eighteen days, during which he was exposed to
every climate, from the 52° north to the 71° of south
latitude, of one hundred and eighteen men composing the ship's
company, he lost only one, who died of a phthisis pulmonalis.
The principal means he used were, to preserve a strict attention
to cleanliness, to procure abundance of vegetables and fresh
provisions, especially good water, and to allow his people sufficlent
time for rest.

WE have reason to believe, if due attention
were paid to the diet, air, clothing, and above all things to
the cleanliness of sea-faring people, they would be the most
healthy set of men in the world; but when these are neglected,
the very reverse will happen.

THE best medical antidote that we can
recommend to sailors or soldiers on foreign coasts, especially
where dampness prevails, is the Peruvian bark. This will often
prevent fevers, and other fatal diseases. About a drachm of it
may be chewed every day; or if this should prove disagreeable,
an ounce of bark, with half an ounce of orange-peel, and two
drachms of snake-root coarsely powdered, may be infused for two
or three days in an English quart of brandy, and half a wine-glass
of it taken twice or thrice a day, when the stomach is empty.
This has been found to be an excellent antidote against fluxes,
putrid, intermitting, and other fevers, in unhealthy climates.
It is not material in what form this medicine be taken. It may
either be infused in water, wine, or spirits, as recommended
above, or made into an electuary with syrup of lemons, oranges,
or the like.

THE SEDENTARY.

THOUGH nothing can be more contrary to the
nature of man than a sedentary life, yet this class comprehends
the far greater part of the species. Almost the whole female
world, and in manufacturing countries, the major part of the
males, may be reckoned sedentary.The
appellation of sedentary has generally been given only to the
studious; we can see no reason, however, for restricting it to
them alone, Many artificers may, with as much propriety, be denominated
sedentary as the studious, with this particular disadvantage,
that they are often obliged to sit in very awkward postures,
which the studious need not do, unless they please.

AGRICULTURE, the first and most healthful
of all employments, is now followed by few who are able to carry
on any other business. But those who imagine that the culture
of the earth is not sufficient to employ all its inhabitants,
are greatly mistaken. An ancient Roman, we are told, could maintain
his family from the produce of one acre of ground. So might a
modern Briton, if he would be contented to live like a Roman.
This shews what an immense increase of inhabitants Britain might
admit of, and all of them live by the culture of the ground.

AGRICULTURE is the great source of riches.
Where it is neglected, whatever wealth may be imported from abroad,
poverty and misery will abound at home. Such is, and ever will
be, the fluctuating state of trade and manufactures, that thousands
of people may be in full employment today, and in beggary tomorrow.
This can never happen to those who cultivate the ground. They
can eat the fruit of their labour, and can always by industry
obtain, at least, the necessaries of life.

THOUGH sedentary employments are necessary,
yet there seems to be no reason why any person should be confined
for life to these alone. Were such employments intermixed with
the more active and laborious, they would never do hurt. It is
constant confinement that ruins the health. A man will not be
hurt by sitting five or six hours a-day; but if he is obliged
to sit ten or twelve, he will soon become delicate.

BUT it is not want of exercise alone which
hurts sedentary people; they likewise suffer from the confined
air which they breathe. It is very common to see ten or a dozen
taylors, or stay-makers, for example, crowded into one small
apartment, where there is hardly room for one single person to
breathe freely. In this situation they generally continue for
many hours at a time, often with the addition of sundry candles,
which tend likewise to waste the air, and render it less fit
for respiration. Air that is breathed repeatedly, loses its spring,
and becomes
unfit for expanding the lungs. This is one cause of the phthisical
coughs, and other complaints of the breast, so incident to sedentary
artificers.

A PERSON of obervation in that line of life
told me, that most taylors die of consumptions; which he attributed
chiefly to the unfavourable postures in which they sit, and the
unwholesomeness of those places where their business is carried
on. If more attention was not paid to profit than to the preservation
of human lives, this evil might be easily remedied; but while
masters only mind their own interest, nothing will be done for
the safety of their servants.

EVEN the perspiration from a great number
of persons pent up together, renders the air unwholesome. The
danger from this quarter will be greatly increased, if any one
of them happens to have bad lungs, or be otherwise diseased.
Those who sit near him, being forced to breathe the same air,
can hardly fail to be infected. It would be a rare thing, however,
to find a, dozen of sedentary people all in good health. The
danger of crowding them together must therefore be evident to
every one.

MANY of those who follow sedentary employments
are constantly in a bending posture, as shoemakers, taylors,
cutlers, &c. Such a situation is extremely hurtful. A bending
posture obstructs all the vital motions, and of course must destroy
the health. Accordingly we find such artificers generally complaining
of indigestions, flatulencies, head-aches, pains of the breast,
&c.

THE aliment in sedentary people, instead of
being pushed forwards by an erect posture, and the action of
the muscles, is in a manner confined in the bowels. Hence indigestions,
costiveness, wind, and other hypochondriacal affections, are
constant companions of the sedentary. Indeed none of the excretions
can be duly performed where exercise is wanting; and when the
matter which ought to be discharged in this way, is retained
too long in the body, it must have bad effects, as it is again
taken up into the mass of humours.

A BENDING posture is likewise hurtful to the
lungs. When this organ is compressed, the air cannot have free
access into all its parts, so as to expand them properly. Hence
tubercles, adhesions, &c. are formed, which often end in
consumptions. Besides, the proper action of the lungs being absolutely
necessary for making good blood, when that organ fails, the humours
soon become universally depraved, and the whole constitution
goes to wreck.

SEDENTARY artificers are not only hurt by
pressure on the bowels, but also on the inferiour extremities,
which obstructs the circulation in these parts, and renders them
weak and feeble. Thus taylors, shoemakers, &c. frequently
lose the use of their legs altogether; besides, the blood and
humours are, by stagnation, vitiated, and the perspiration is
obstructed from whence proceed the scab, ulcerous sores, foul
blotches, and other cutaneous diseases, so common among sedentary
artificers.

A BAD figure of body is a very common consequence
of close application to sedentary employments. The spine, for
example, by being continually bent, puts on a crooked shape,
and generally remains so ever after. But a bad figure of body
has already been observed to be hurtful to health, as the vital
functions are thereby impeded.

A SEDENTARY life seldom fails to occasion
an universal relaxation of the solids. This is the great source
from whence most of the diseases of sedentary people flow. The
scrophula, consumption, hysterics, and nervous diseases, now
so common, were very little known in this country before sedentary
artificers became so numerous; and they are very little known
still among such of our people as follow active employments without
doors, though in great towns at least two-thirds of the inhabitants
are afflicted with them.

IT is very difficult to remedy those evils,
because many who have been accustomed to a sedentary life, like
ricketty children, lose all inclination for exercise; we shall,
however, throw out a few hints with respect to the most likely
means for preserving the health of this useful set of people,
which some of them, we hope, will be wise enough to observe.

IT has been already observed, that sedentary
artificers are often hurt by their bending posture. They ought
therefore to stand or sit as erect as the nature of their employments
will permit. They should likewise change their posture frequently,
and should never sit too long at a time; but leave off work and
walk, ride, run, or do any thing that will promote the vital
functions.

SEDENTARY artificers are generally allowed
too little time for exercise; yet, short as it is, they seldom
employ it properly. A journeyman taylor or weaver, for example,
instead of walking abroad for exercise and fresh air, at his
hours of leisure, chuses often to spend them in a public house,
or in playing at some sedentary game, by which he generally loses
both his time and his money.

THE awkward postures in which many sedentary
artificers work, seem rather to be the effect of custom than
necessity. For example, a table might surely be contrived for
ten or a dozen taylors to sit round, with liberty for their legs
either to hang down, or rest upon a foot board, as they should
chuse. A place might likewise be cut out for each person, in
such a manner that he might fit as conveniently for working as
in the present mode of sitting cross-legged.

ALL sedentary artificers ought to pay the
most religious regard to cleanliness. Both their situation and
occupations render this highly necessary. Nothing would contribute
more to preserve their health, than a strict attention to it;
and such of them as neglect it, not only run the hazard of losing
health, but of becoming a nuisance to their neighbours.

SEDENTARY people ought to avoid food that
is windy, or hard of digestion, and should pay the strictest
regard to sobriety. A person who works hard without doors will
soon throw off a debauch; but one who sits has by no means an
equal chance. Hence it often happens, that sedentary people are
seized with fevers after hard drinking. When such persons feel
their spirits low, instead of running to the tavern for relief,
they should ride, or walk in the fields. This would remove the
complaint more effectually than strong, liquor, and would never
hurt the constitution.

INSTEAD of multiplying rules for preserving
the health of the sedentary, we shall recommend to them the following
general plan, viz. That every person who follows a sedentary
employment should cultivate a piece of ground with his own hands.
This he might dig, plant, sow, and weed at leisure hours, so
as to make it both an exercise and amusement, while it produced
many of the necessaries of life. After working an hour in a garden,
a man will return with more keenness to his employment within
doors, than if he had been all the while idle.

LABOURING the ground is every way conducive
to health. It not only gives exercise to every part of the body,
but the very smell of the earth and fresh herbs revives and cheers
the spirits, whilst the perpetual prospect of something coming
to maturity, delights and entertains the mind. We are so formed
as to be always pleased with somewhat in prospect, however distant
or however trivial. Hence the happiness that most men feel in
planting, sowing, building, &c. These seem to have been the
chief employments of the more early ages: and, when kings and
conquerors cultivated the ground, there is reason to believe,
that they knew as well wherein true happiness consisted as we
do.

IT may seem romantic to recommend gardening
to manufacturers in great towns; but observation proves, that
the plan is very practicable. In the town of Sheffield, in Yorkshire,
where the great iron manufacture is carried on, there is hardly
a journeyman cutler who does not possess a piece of ground, which
he cultivates as a garden. This practice has many salutary effects.
It not only induces these people to take exercise without doors,
but also to eat many greens, roots, &c. of their own growth,
which they would never think of purchasing. There can be no reason
why manufacturers in any other town in Great Britain should not
follow the same plan. It is indeed to be regretted, that in such
a place as London a plan of this kind is not practicable; yet
even there sedentary artificers may find opportunities of taking
air and exercise, if they chuse to embrace them.

MECHANICS are too much inclined to crowd into
great towns. This situation may have some advantages; but it
has likewise many disadvantages. All mechanics. who live in the
country have it in their power to possess a piece of ground;
which indeed most of them do. This not only gives them exercise
but enables them to live more comfortably. So far at least as
my observation extends, mechanics who live in the country are
far more happy than those in great towns. They enjoy better health,
live in greater affluence, and seldom fail to rear a healthy
and numerous offspring,

IN a word, exercise without doors, in one
shape or another, is absolutely necessary to health. Those who
neglect it, though they may for a while drag out life, can hardly
be said to enjoy it. Weak and effeminate, they languish for a
few years, and soon drop into an untimely grave.

THE STUDIOUS

INTENSE thinking is so destructive to health,
that few instances can be produced of studious persons who are
strong and healthy. Hard study always implies a sedentary life;
and when intense thinking is joined to the want of exercise,
the consequences must be bad. We have frequently known even a
few months of close application to study ruin an excellent constitution
by inducing a train of nervous complaints which could never be
removed. Man is evidently not formed for continual thought more
than for perpetual action, and would be as soon worn out by the
one as by the other.

SO great is the power of the mind over the
body, that, by its influence, the whole vital motions may be
accelerated or retarded, to almost any degree. Thus cheerfulness
and mirth quicken the circulation, and promote all the secretions;
whereas sadness and profound thought never fail to retard them.
Hence it would appear, that even a degree of thoughtlessness
is necessary to health. Indeed, the perpetual thinker seldom
enjoys eitheir health or spirits; while the person who can hardly
be said to think at all, generally enjoys both.

PERPETUAL thinkers, as they are called, seldom
think long. In a few years they generally become quite stupid,
and exhibit a melancholy proof of how readily the greatest blessings
may be abused. Thinking, like every thing else, when carried
to extreme, becomes a vice: nor can any thing afford a greater
proof of wisdom than for a man frequently and seasonably to unbend
his mind. This may generally be done by mixing in cheerful company,
active diversions, or the like.

INSTEAD of attempting to investigate the nature
of that connection which subsists between the mind and body,
or to inquire into the manner in which they mutually affect each
other, we shall only mention those diseases to which the learned
are more peculiarly liable, and endeavour to point out the means
of avoiding them.

STUDIOUS persons are very subject to the gout.
This painful disease in a great measure proceeds from indigestion,
and an obstructed perspiration. It is impossible that the man
who sits from morning till night should either digest his food,
or have any of the secretions in due quantity. But when that
matter, which should be thrown off by the skin, is retained in
the body and the humours are not duly prepared, diseases must
ensue.

THE studious are likewise very liable to the
stone and gravel. Exercise greatly promotes both the secretion
and discharge of urine: consequently a sedentary life must have
the contrary effect. Any one may be satisfied of this by observing,
that he passes much more urine by day than in the night, and
also when he walks or rides, than when he sits.

THE circulation in the liver being slow, obstructions
in that organ can hardly fail to be the consequence of inactivity.
Hence sedentary people are frequently afflicted with schirrous
livers. But the proper secretion and discharge of the bile is
so necessary a part of the animal oeconomy, that where these
are not duly performed, the health must soon be impared. Jaundice,
indigestion, loss of appetite, and a wasting of the whole body,
seldom fail to be the consequences of a vitiated state of the
liver, or obstructions of the bile.

FEW diseases prove more fatal to the studious
than consumptions of the lungs, It has already been observed,
that this organ cannot be duly expanded in those who do not take
proper exercise; and where that is the case, obstructions and
adhesions will ensue. Not only want of exercise, but the posture
in which studious persons generally sit, is very hurtful to the
lungs. Those who read or write much are ready to contract a habit
of bending forwards, and often press with their breast upon a
table or bench. This posture cannot fail to hurt the lungs.

THE functions or the heart may likewise by
this means be injured. I remember to have seen a man opened,
whose pericardium adhered to the breast-bone in such a manner,
as to obstruct the motion of the heart, and occasion his death.
The only probable cause that could be assigned for this singular
symptom was, that the man, whose business was writing, used constantly
to sit in a bending posture, with his breast pressing upon the
edge of a flat table.

NO person can enjoy health who does not properly
digest his food. But intense thinking and inactivity never fail
to weaken the powers of digestion. Hence the humours become crude
and vitiated, the solids weak and relaxed, and the whole constitution
goes to ruin.

LONG and intense thinking often occasions
grievous head-achs, which bring on vertigoes, apoplexies, palsies,
and other fatal disorders. The best way to prevent these is,
never to study too long at one time, and to keep the body regular,
either by proper food, or taking frequently a little of some
opening medicine.

THOSE who read or write much are often afflicted
with sore eyes. Studying by candle-light is peculiarly hurtful
to the sight. This ought to be practised as seldom as possible.
When it is unavoidable, the eyes should be shaded, and the head
should not be held too low. When the eyes are weak or painful,
they should be bathed every night and morning in cold water to
which a little brandy may be added.

IT has already been observed, that the excretions
are very defective in the studious. The dropsy is often occasioned
by the retention of those humours which ought to be carried off
in this way. Any person may observe, that sitting makes his legs
swell, and that this goes off by exercise; which clearly points
out the method of prevention.

FEVERS, especially of the nervous kind, are
often the effect of study. Nothing affects the nerves so much
as intense thought. It in a manner unhinges the whole human frame,
and not only hurts the vital motions, but disorders the mind
itself. Hence a delirium, melancholy, and even madness, are often
the effect of close application to study. In fine, there is no
disease which can proceed either from a bad state of the humours,
a defect of the usual secretions, or a debility of the nervous
system, which may not be induced by intense thinking.

BUT the most afflicting of all the diseases
which attack the studious is the hypochondriac. This disease
seldom fails to be the companion of deep thought. It may rather
be called a complication of maladies, than a single one. To what
a wretched condition are the best of men often reduced by it!
Their strength and appetite fail; a perpetual gloom hangs over
their minds; they live in the constant dread of death, and are
continually, in search of relief from medicine, where, alas!
it is not to be found. Those who labour under this disorder,
though they are often made the subject of ridicule, justly claim
our highest sympathy and compassion.

HARDLY any thing can be more preposterous
than for a person to make study his sole business. A mere student
is seldom an useful member of society. He often neglects the
most important duties of life, in order to pursue studies of
a very trifling nature. Indeed it rarely happens, that any useful
invention is the effect of mere study. The farther men dive into
profound researches, they generally deviate the more from common
sense and too often lose sight of it altogether. Profound speculations,
instead of making men wiser or better, generally render them
absolute sceptics, and overwhelm them with doubt and uncertainty.
All that is necessary for man to know, in order to be happy,
is easily obtained; and the rest, like the forbidden fruit, serves
only to increase his misery.

STUDIOUS persons, in order to relieve their
minds, must not only discontinue to read and write, but engage
in some employment or diversion, that will so far occupy the
thought as to make them forget the business of the closet. A
solitary ride or walk are so far from relaxing the mind, that
they rather encourage thought. Nothing can divert the mind, when
it gets into a train of serious thinking, but attention to subjects
of a more trivial nature. These prove a kind of play to the mind,
and consequently relieve it.

LEARNED men often contract a contempt for
what they call trifling company. They are ashamed to be seen
with any but philosophers. This however is no proof of their
being philosophers themselves. No man deserves that name who
is ashamed to unbend his mind, by associating with the chearful
and gay. Even the society of children will relieve the mind,
and expel the gloom which application to study is too apt to
occasion.

AS studious people are necessarily much within
doors, they should make choice of a large and well-aired place
for study. This would not only prevent the bad effects which
attend confined air, but would cheer the spirits, and have a
most happy influence both on the body and mind. It is said of
Euripides the Tragedian, that he used to retire to a dark cave
to compose his tragedies, and of Demosthenes the Grecian orator,
that he chose a place for study where nothing could be either
heard or seen. With all deference to such venerable names, we
cannot help condemning their taste. A man may surely think to
as good purpose in an elegant apartment as in a cave, and may
have as happy conceptions, where the all-cheering rays of the
sun render the air wholesome, as in places where they never enter.

THOSE who read or write much, should be very
attentive to their posture. They ought to sit and stand by turns,
always keeping as nearly in an erect posture as possible. Those
who dictate, may do it walking. It has an excellent effect frequently
to read or speak aloud. This not only exercises the lungs, but
almost the whole body. Hence studious people are greatly benefited
by delivering discourses in public. Public speakers, indeed,
sometimes hurt themselves by overacting their part; but this
is their own fault. The martyr to mere vociferation merits not
out sympathy.

THE morning has, by all medical writers, been
reckoned the best time for study. It is so. But it is also the
most proper season for exercise, while the stomach is empty,
and the spirits refreshed with sleep. Studious people should
therefore sometimes spend the morning in walking, riding, of
some manly diversions without doors. This would make them return
to study with greater alacrity, and would be of more service
than twice the time after their spirits are worn out with fatigue.
It is not sufficient to take diversion only when we can think
no longer. Every studious person should make it a part of his
business, and should let nothing interrupt his hours of recreation
more than those of study.

MUSIC has a very happy effect in relieving
the mind when fatigued with study. It would be well if every
studious person were so far acquainted with that science as to
amuse himself after severe thought, by playing such airs as have
a tendency to raise the spirits, and inspire cheerfulness and
good-humour.

IT is a reproach to Learning, that any of
her votaries, to relieve the mind after study, should betake
themselves to the use of strong liquors. This indeed is a remedy;
but it is a desperate one, and always proves destructive. Would
such persons, when their spirits are low, get on horseback, and
ride ten or a dozen miles, they would find it a more effectual
remedy than any cordial medicine in the apothecary's shop, or
all the strong liquors in the world.

THE following is my plan, and I cannot recommend
a better to others. When my mind is fatigued with study, or other
serious business, I mount my horse, and ride ten or twelve miles
into the country, where I spend a day, and sometimes two, with
a cheerful friend; after which I never fail to return to town
with new vigour, and to pursue my studies or business with fresh
alacrity.

IT is much to be regretted that learned men,
while in health, pay so little regard to these things! There
is not any thing more common than to see a miserable object over-run
with nervous diseases, bathing, walking, riding, and, in a word,
doing every thing for health after it is gone; yet, if any one
had recommended these things to him by way of prevention, the
advice would, in all probability, have been treated with contempt,
or, at least, with neglect. Such is the weakness and folly of
mankind, and such the want of foresight, even in those who ought
to be wiser than others!

WITH regard to the diet of the studious, we
see no reason why they should abstain from any kind of food that
is wholesome, provided they use it in moderation. They ought,
however, to be sparing in the use of every thing that is sour,
windy, rancid, or hard of digestion. Their suppers should always
be light, or taken soon in the evening. Their drink may be water,
fine malt liquor, not too strong, good cyder, wine and water,
or, if troubled with acidities, ,water mixed with a little brandy,
rum, or any other good spirit.

WE shall only observe, with regard to those
kinds of exercise which are most proper for the studious, that
they should not be too violent, nor ever carried to the degree
of excessive fatigue. They ought likewise to be frequently varied
so as to give action to all the different parts of the body;
and should, as often as possible, be taken in the open air. In
general, riding on horseback, walking, working in a garden, or
playing at some active diversions, are the best.

WE would likewise recommend the use of the
cold bath to the studious. It will, in some measure, supply the
place of exercise, and should not be neglected, by persons of
a relaxed habit, especially in the warm season.

NO person ought either to take violent exercise,
or to study immediately after a full meal.